What kind of a guy are you?

Hey fam! Ha ha Allie's quote has been running through my head all week long. I think on the next tape that you send, you should record that Allie! I told Elder Jensen about how you would always say that and now we ask each other in that cute nasally voice, "What kind of a missionary are you??" Ha ha. I see potential for a zone theme... ;)

This has been a fantastic week! The Lord has blessed us so much with some awesome people. We have also received some great referrals! Monday was a blast too; we got to go play racquetball (sp?) with J, C, and their dad C at the YMCA for P-day. It was a lot of fun and I kind of started to get the hang of it. I kept putting a lot of top-spin on the ball though ha ha, it was apparent that I miss tennis. I bet Nate and Seth are just champs by now aren't you guys?

We met and taught this golden beyond golden guy this week nam

ed G! We were walking around an apartment complex doing some finding, and stopped and talked to him. He was like, "I've been looking for the mormon church and I want to become a mormon. I just haven't been able to find it around here." Heh, well we can help you with that my good friend. It was neat to see though how he is an amazing person and recognized and acted upon the promptings of the Holy Ghost in his life. He is from Peru originally, and has an LDS girlfriend up in Maryland, as well as some LDS friends in the Clermont area. His friends had given him a copy of the Book of Mormon, and he had began to read on his own. He is so solid! We taught him Tuesday, set a baptismal date for August 20th (which is probably actually going to be the 21st or so), and then went back again on Friday with J H (the bishop's son) to teach him again. Both G and J play soccer so we thought he'd be awesome fellowship for him. Our next lesson (Fri) went so good too! He had

read and understood the whole Restoration pamphlet. He had read from the BOM and said his prayers every night. We were sitting there in awe, just almost wondering if it was some

kind of joke. But, I know, and am coming to know more each day, that this is what an elect person is like.

I think one of the hardest things I have had on my mission, and am

still learning to overcome, is to leave behind the "nice, but not quite ready" people for the truly elect. I feel such a love for everyone that I feel like I never want to give up on them, but there are people right now, like G, that the Lord has prepared to be taught and baptized. I think I am finally starting to understand that concept. As hard as it is, that is something Elder Jensen and I are going to focus on more is finding the elect. Please pray that we will be led to them, or that they will be led to us and recognize us as the servants of the Lord.

Yesterday at church was kind of a bummer day... it was an AMAZING meeting all centered on missionary work, but all of our investigators bailed :( The C weren't able to come, G wasn't able to come (we knew that he wouldn't be able to this Sunday beforehand though, and he'll be there), and nobody else. That's ok though, we are going to redouble our efforts and this week will be better.

This area is very affluent, and we have been praying a lot to figure out ways to be more effective. One area we are going to start focusing on more is member-missionary work. Any ideas on what you have seen to be effective in helping members do their missionary work? We have some very missionary-minded members, and now it's just a matter of harvesting those that the Lord has prepared at this time. Please pray for us to be able to find the elect.

Just fyi, the "perfect storm" is over. Whew. That was SO many numbers... Anyway.

I can't believe that the summer is almost over! Aaah and then everyone will be back to school and Mindy @ BYU and everything. I loved hearing about how you enjoyed Sunday as a family! Oh man I miss that. I am looking forward to spending next summer's sundays with the fam :) Well, I love you all so much! Mom, I hope that this letter was a little bit longer than last weeks ;) I will be writing some of you a letter today (I meant to last week, but then some mishaps came up and our racketball ride wasn't able to bring us back until right close to 6). I will repent! Love you all so much! =]

-Elder Beckett

p.s. Another quick miracle - We were stopping by the H family (an awesome missionary family in the ward) and talking to them about some of their friends they have that they are working on sharing the gospel with. They told us about a friend M who has been to church and everything and wants to be baptized, but his mom won't let him. Well, right as we are sitting there, someone knocks at the door. It's M and his mom! Ha ha they came in, talked to Bro H a bit in Spanish, and he found out that M was grounded or something. W

ell his momtold him that she wants him to take the lessons and take to us so it can help him out! =] So basically maybe he was inspired to get in trouble and become grounded all for that very moment, so that now he can be taught the gospel =] The Lord works in mysterious ways indeed! Ha ha I love you!

Elder Beckett and some investigators.
Orlando Temple!
Elder Beckett and "Grandpa"
Grandpa took the guys out for lunch!

The Spirit is the true teacher!

Hey familia! My time is short today, but I'll tell you some of the great news for the week:

- L, J, and C C came to church! I think C (the Dad) had to work. He was here last time though.

-B's friend G came to church

-We set a baptismal date with S!

-Leadership conference was fantastic =] I learned so much! The training was crazy.. it kinda fell apart :S that's alright though lol, I learned a lot. It was hard because they didn't give us a time limit, and then at the last second President had us just train on 2 certain parts of it, etc. Anyway, I learned a lot about giving trainings =] And it was awesome to see Destin-er-Sister Allen and Elder McClatchy there! Fun stuff. Plus there were a lot of other mission friends I got to meet up with and talk to. It's crazy to see things progressing in the mission and everyone "getting old" ha ha. Nearly my whole district when I was in Sumterville was there, it was great!

Elder Jensen is awesome, we are having a blast. I am loving teaching with him and being his companion! We are really working on teaching by the Spirit and asking inspired questions. Mom - congrats on your pioneer day lesson! Sounds like that was really neat for the kids. I wish I could've been there! Allie and Seth - I love LOVED those letters! They were just saturated with your wonderful personalities! It was so much fun and made my whole week to read them. I love it! And those pics you sent, Mindy, in the email were awesome! I love my family. Way to go Al-bal the photographer! I can't wait to see all of your artistic accomplishments when I get back. Anyway sorry it's so short, but I gotta go. I love you all so much! Please pray that J & L will be able to make it to church this week, and that the Cwill come as a family! And pray for S that her family will be alright (they got in a car accident). I love you so much! Have a great week!

love,

Elder Beckett

Andrew's Desk... (I sent him the peace sign moose sticker on his planner!!)
Missionary Boys!
Pretty sunset and pretty home!
Storybook clouds. =]
Andrew and Sister Worwood
Missionary BUDDIES! 3 of them are from Tooele County!

Elder Jensen is here!

Hey fam! I love you =]

Elder Jensen from Las Vegas, NV is my new comp. He is the man! We are having so much fun together and working great already. We get along really well, teach well together, and are on the same page. He has 2 brothers and 2 sisters, but he is the youngest. He is a great guy, and loves BYU as well =] He reminds me a lot of Uncle Darin (I forget how he spells it.. :/) with his smile, laugh, voice, and positive attitude! I am really excited to be working with him and see what the Lord has in store. Plus, we should be together for a while which is nice. This area is getting going and it's great to see!

We had a good week, we saw some miracles for sure. One night the Lord led us to stop by and visit a member. They are a less active family, and she is a single mom with 2 sons (18 & 15). The 15 year old was the only one home when we stopped by about 8:15 or so, and so we talked to him for a minute. He told us about what has been going on, and it sounded like he had had a hard day, breaking his mom's computer and all. Well, he invited us in to get a drink and so we could share a short message with him. We sat down and were watching the Mormon Message "Hope Ya Know, I'm Having a Hard Time." Well, his mom walks in right at the end and we introduce ourselves and ask her how she is doing. She looks really stressed and like she just has a big burden and says, "To be honest, I've had a terrible day." Well, we invited her to watch this message with us. As we watched it again with her there this time, the Spirit really touched her. She had tears running down her face and just was sobbing while we watched it. She knew, and I knew, that the Lord had specifically sent us there to show His love for His daughter and her family; to reach out and help them come back. She pretty much bore her testimony after it was over, letting us know that it wasn't by chance that we stopped by that night, at that time, and she said she knew that the Lord's way is the only way to happiness. It was a huge testimony-builder for me to know that this IS the Lord's work, and He is truly guiding it. It was also wonderful to see just how in our greatest times of need, the Lord sends us help to strengthen and lift us.

We also were able to have a great lesson with the C family! Please continue to pray for them; especially that they will be able to make it to church as a family this coming week. J and his dad came yesterday which was great. The Mom and daughter had a Colombian celebration thing they went to, but they will be there this coming week. They are amazing =] We are going to invite them to be baptized this week on a specific date, so please pray that they will accept!

It is pretty crazy trying to keep everything straight with all of the missionaries in the zone. Call-ins take up like the whole night. Numbers are even crazier now; not to mention that on the 31st is "the perfect storm" as they call it lol. That's where we collect the weekly numbers, plus the stake correlations. Crazy. We are loving it.

Please pray for Elder Jensen and I to be able to give the training the Lord would have us give at Leadership Conference this week. All of the zone leaders, district leaders, trainers, and trainees are going to be there. It will be huge. I am excited though! Sister Allen and Elder McClatchy will be there so it will be great to see them! Hopefully we can get a picture or something. I still haven't met Sister Allen yet, but I will this week.

Well, I sure love my family! I am thankful for your love and support. You are all in my prayers. Until next week,

Elder Andrew Beckett

p.s. Apparently the H's (the bishop & his family in Lake Reams, our ward, know the Browns (Lancaster's family). Cool ha ha!) Love ya!

Transfers what?

Hey family! So this past week has been great, and hard, but the Lord has carried me through :) We had Zone Leader Council, which is always a wonderful experience. I always learn so much, and it is very helpful to find out how the mission is doing as a whole, and what areas we can improve on.

So, Elder Johnson will be transferring to Daytona Beach! He is going to love it there with Grandpa and Bill and everyone. I will be companions with Elder Jensen. I don't know his name or where he's from or anything, but I think he's been out for about a year now. It should be a fun experience, in that we are both zone leaders who don't really know much about being zone leaders! So, we will just work our hardest, give our best, be exactly obedient, and rely completely on the Lord. Things will work out :) Also, our zone has grown. They dissolved the spanish zone, "La Zona," so now we will have 37 missionaries in our zone. That is a lot. Please pray for us!

This past week was good, a lot of wonderful things happened! M, our friend that we were teaching in this ward a while back, called and asked if I could come to where he is at and baptize him! I got permission from President, and so if that goes through I will be baptizing him soon. He is so cool! He is the one that came to church here with his friend for a while, but then we had to pass him off to the other missionaries where he lived. However, we just barely heard that he isn't sure if he still wants to be baptized or not :( So please, please, PLEASE pray for him that the Spirit will touch his heart and he will KNOW that this is the right choice. He is so elect!

We also got to go see G & L for a quick minute (they are the referrals and friends of the F family). They have J, J, and J, who are 14, 7, and 3 respectively. J's birthday was recently and so we brought him by a nice picture of Jesus as well as the Finding Faith in Christ dvd. He loved it! L invited us to dinner at their house this week, and so we will be going and teaching them then. They are such a great family, but we need to get them married and to church. Please pray that the Spirit will continue to work on them and that they can come to church this week!

Another wonderful member referral we are working with is the C family. They are from Colombia, and B J is good friends with their son J. They are such a great family! We are going to see them tonight. Please pray hard for them as well that they will accept the gospel message and come to church this Sunday.

We had D come to church on Sunday! It was great :) D is the man. He has a baptismal date for July 31st, and things are looking positive. We aren't quite sure how his experience at church was yesterday - it seemed like it went welll, but he had to leave right after Sacrament meeting. Please pray for him to feel the Spirit and come back to church. We also set a date with a lady named A, but it's looking like she's going to have a harder time getting Sundays off for work. She'll get there though :)

Sister Allen, as you will see in the transfer emails, is now training in Sebastian! Good for her =] She is a champ and will do great! I still haven't seen her here yet. Elder McClatchy is still in the same area he was last transfer too, so we haven't quite been in the same zone yet.

Anyway, things are going well and I love you all so much! I'm glad to hear that Dad made it back safely, and that Allie got her patriarchal blessing! What a wonderful experience. You are all in my thoughts and prayers each day =] Sorry I haven't been writing much, I will do better at that. Wonderful things are happening here in the Florida Orlando mission; there are a lot of good changes to help us stay more focused on our purpose and what we need to accomplish. Leadership is getting younger and younger; the majority of the current zone leaders will be home this or next transfer. Things are getting exciting, and the culture of the mission is changing for the better!

I love you all!

-Elder Andrew John Beckett

Happy 4th, in Utah or Alaska! ;)

Hey fam! I love you guys 7 much (which is the max and then some =])!

I hope you had a wonderful 4th there in Utah; I think that's definitely one of my favorite holidays back home. It's just fun to spend the 4th of July in Grantsville, UT. This has been a fun and busy week. Let me tell you a way cool story that happened on Monday... :)

So, I was at the church with a bunch of the missionaries playing basketball. We were shooting around and I look over at the door and see some people walk in. They look kind of like Teresa and Abi McNeill. I don't think anything of it, and then I do a double-take and they look EXACTLY like them! Well, it turns out it really was them ha ha! I ran over and was like, "HEY! Wow, ha ha, what's going on?" It was so much fun. We talked for a few minutes, they brought us a bunch of delicious Pizza Hut pizza, and then they headed out. I guess they have friends/cousins in the Ocoee ward, the Claibornes, who they were up here visiting. It was awesome to see them though!

And congrats to Kenni G and Brach! That is exciting. I saw that they were coming to Orlando for their honeymoon! I almost half expected to see them at church or something ha ha. Hopefully they had an enjoyable time and got to see Disney or something fun like that!

So... word on the street is that Elder Lancaster Joel Brown I is engaged. Ha ha yeah buddy! That is so funny. Elder Larsen definitely predicted that one - his guess was 4-6 weeks after he got home. Well, it was a month and a day, which falls right into that category. Congrats Lancaster! =] He is engaged to Ali Krebs, who has faithfully waited for him these two years. How exciting. Anyway, just thought I'd give a shout-out to the Man LB.

Right now the zone is doing alright; some areas are doing great and some not so great. We need to get things rolling with all of the areas instead of just some. It's really interesting to get to see how the zone is doing and follow up with the district leaders and all. It helps me want to be a lot better!

For the 4th here, it was our P-day, which made it really nice (not a lot of people like talking to people they don't know that knock on their door on a holiday). The morning went pretty normal, we had our studies, shopped, etc., and then the Flores family took us out to lunch! They were going to take us to a bbq place called "4 Rivers," but it was closed. We ended up going to Lonestar, which was still really good! After that we went to the church and played some basketball. For dinner, our WML invited us over to their place. It was super good, we had grilled chicken and bratwurst and watermelon and salad and some good dessert too. The Js from the ward were also there. We had a good lesson with them after that about the Atonement. They are such nice people to invite us over and share the holiday with us :)

That evening we got to go on exchanges with Blake Johnson, and went and followed up with some people. We had a lesson with a really nice lady named Judy, who works at Disney. Her husband passed away and she lives in the apartments right by Magic Kingdom. It was a good lesson and we will be going back to teach her soon. After that lesson, we met Ed & Joanne Peterson at the Church and they took us to the backside of Disney to watch the fireworks! President Hall let us stay out until 10:30 to watch the fireworks. The Disney fireworks were amazing! They put on quite a show. Grantsville's is still definitely one of my favorites though too ;)

Well, we are still trying to get some solid investigators rolling. The Lord has blessed us with some wonderful families to work with - the Cs (J, the 18 yr old son, is B's friend), and the Ts (G & L are friends of the Fs'). We have shared a short lesson with them, but aren't quite actively teaching them yet. Please pray your hearts out that we will be able to continue to develop a good relationship and help them accept the gospel! Pray that the Spirit will work with them in their lives and that their hearts will be changed. Also, please pray that we will receive the needed inspiration and revelation to best help them. Thank you so much, your prayers really do have a big influence on me and the work that is going on here.

Well, transfer calls are this Saturday; it will be interesting to see if Elder Johnson will stay or go because he has been in this zone for so long. I think he is gone, but we'll see when it comes. I love you all so very much and feel your love for me each day! Thanks for being who you are. Oh, and weird thought - next 4th of July I will be spending at home with my FAMILY! Aaaah! HA ha love you all =]

Oh, btw, we had church for the first time in the Lake Reams chapel, and it was great! It's a nice building and the ward is great. There were a lot of wonderful testimonies on missionary work, and the ward is excited and ready to go! The stake has put a great fast on missionary work for the month of July. Well, talk to you next week! Lu ya!

-Elder Beckett

Lake Reams

Hey fam! I want you to know first of all that I love and miss each one of you a ton! I was looking at your pictures this morning just thinking about how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family. You truly are the best and most influential people of my life. Thanks =]

What a blessing to be able to write you once a week! I think I take that for granted. Even though it seems hard when compared to how well we could communicate otherwise in today's world (i.e. through phone, texting, IM, skype, etc.), it really is wonderful that I get to hear from you and email you once a week. If I were a missionary back in the pioneers' times it wouldn't be nearly so often. I am very grateful for email.

This has been a week of challenges.... and triumphs! Ha, we endured through the trials well, and the Lord blessed us. M, miracle M, is getting baptized this coming Sunday. We had to refer him to the College Park Sister missionaries because he technically lives in their area, but he is super excited and ready to go! We are going to be there, unless for some reason we aren't able to get permission. M is so elect though it is amazing. He was a huge testimony and example to me of how the Lord really is preparing people to hear this message.

We did a lot of finding this week; we have been working extremely hard to build up our teaching pool. When we got here we had nobody, and we are slowly working our way up. Unfortunately D and B have dropped off the face of the earth (so it seems), and we haven't had contact with them for about a week. She got a job working 7 days a week, and he has been having some neck problems, and so it's gone downhill :(. They have felt the Spirit though, and we keep them in our prayers, and so I guess when they are ready then they will come back and learn more.

This week we searched and searched and searched for some new investigators. We visited members asking for referrals, followed up with potentials the past missionaries had left in the Area Book, visited former investigators, and then of course knocked some doors. It was almost a joke how people reacted when they saw us at their door. Door after door after door slammed. It's amazing how scared people are of the Mormons. We saw a guy all geared up and opening his door with his dog on a leash to go for a run (like really, he was all geared up - even wearing a headband), and he opened up the door and saw us there and was like, "Woah..." and pulled his dog back in and shut the door. I just started laughing and was like, "Wow, really?" I am learning to love everyone though, regardless of how they react to us.

That's kind of how our whole week went until right towards the end of it. Saturday it was raining, we got soaked, and were still just trying to find people to teach. We had an appointment with a guy named D. He is a personal chef. We met with him, and from the start of the lesson we could tell things were going well. The Spirit was there as we taught and testified of the Restoration. D understood and felt the Spirit as well, and at the end of the lesson we committed him to prepare to be baptized on July 31st! He accepted. We are excited to go back and teach him more.

Yesterday at church they split the wards and realigned the boundaries. I remember a long time ago when they did that in our stake; it's always a hard day to lose friends to another ward. We are now the new Lake Reams ward, and will be going to a church that is just up the road from where we live. It will be nice because the distance is so much shorter! That also means that they will likely be bringing in a new set of missionaries for the Windermere ward (the Lake Reams ward was taken from within the old Windermere ward boundaries).

Thank you so much for the letters and postcards! They are so awesome. And Allie, I will definitely be using that moose sticker on my next planner. I am making it right now. That is super COOL! Ha ha so thank you. So the McNeills were here? Were they visiting a Claiborne family? Elder Wilde told me that someone in their ward (Ocoee) knew the McNeills, and so I'm assuming it was them? That's so cool ha ha! Sucha small world.

Congrats to Shineah! Woot! I didn't know until now. How exciting! When is the date? And yeah, A.J. is a great name. ;) Hey, do you have Justin's address? He sent me a postcard a little while ago, but I couldn't find the return address on their and don't know how to reply lol.

Well, I love you all and am thankful for your diligence and examples! Sometimes things don't always go how we would like or expect them to, but that's when we really need to show our faith and obedience to the Lord. The blessings will come in time :) I love you so much and pray for you each and every day, numerous times. Have a great week and hope you all enjoy your scout camps and whatever else you have!

Happy Father's Day!

Hey Familia! Happy Father's Day =] Dad, I really do love you. I just couldn't bear sending off an unfinished tape... It will be finished and sent in the mail today though (well, the mail probably won't send it off until tomorrow, but yeah). I figured you'd rather have me finish the tape than send it off with some unfinished spots... who knows. Anyway, I didn't forget about you and you have been in my thoughts and prayers all week long!

It has been a fun week and a lot of good happened. I am constantly just in awe at how good the Lord is to all of us (Moroni 10:3). I am loving this ward so much already =] Elder Johnson is the man too, we have so much fun together. We are starting to get into the groove of teaching together in unity. The start of each companionship is always a little bumpy until you adjust to each other :) Service works miracles.

One of the families in the ward are the Ks; they are polynesian. Mom, do you know anyone on Oahu in the Kaimuki Ward? Any K, V, or K? I told them that you served a mission there and Bro. K told me some people & family that he has over there.

This week we experienced a couple of double-meal nights. Sometimes we have investigators or less-active/part-member families that want to feed us, but we already have a full meal calendar. So when they offer to feed us, we just accept it a little later (dinners are to be done by 6 unless with an investigator or part-member) and have 2 =] It works out great. I'll tell you what, that is one thing I have learned how to do on my mission - eat. And then eat some more. Hopefully it will help me grow into a big strong MAN by the time I see you guys again ;)

So, just like he always does... as soon as investigators start making the most progress towards baptism, Satan starts throwing out the most opposition. D and B are kind of in a hard spot right now - they are struggling a little bit financially, D hurt his neck, and B just got a job where she works 7 days a week. Bummer :( We are still keeping close contact though and offering to help them in every way they can. We definitely aren't giving up; it's just going to take a little longer than we initially thought for them to be baptized (especially now with the new job situation and all).

We have another solid (our most solid) investigator named M S. He is so cool! He is a friend of a member named Thomas. M has been driving 50 mins each week to come to our church with his friend. Anyway, he is the one that we set a baptism date with last week for July 2nd. Well, the only problem is that he lives in the other area, so really the missionaries there should be teaching him, and he should start going to that ward. We had a great lesson with him yesterday after church and got that worked out. Hopefully we will be able to attend his baptism though! Just to give you an idea of how elect he is - Saturday night he called us (yeah, HE called US) and asked us what he can do to prepare for his baptism. So cool! He is such a great guy (20 years old), humble, and recognizes the influence of the Holy Ghost in his life. It is so cool to be able to work with people and see the effects that the Spirit has on them as they act in faith.

We had the wonderful opportunity this past Thursday to go and do temple service! We get to do that once a month as a zone. Actually though Elder Johnson and I get to do it twice a month; the zone splits in half and does it on 2 separate weeks =] It was so cool though to go and be able to help out with keeping the Lord's house and grounds looking nice! Some of the things we do are plant flowers, mulch trees, blow off the walkways, and clean the fountain. It's a lot of fun, and after we have a little lunch thing.

Well, I'm glad to hear that you survived Ragnar Mindy! Way to go! I'm also glad to know that you all made it safely back from Yellowstone. You were in my prayers even more than usual this past week :) I sure love you all. I know that this is the only true and living church on the earth. We receive revelation from God through a prophet, Thomas S. Monson. What a wonderful blessing :) We don't have to prove that it is true either! It is our responsibility however to invite everyone to learn for themselves. The pure of heart and sincere seekers of truth will hear the voice of the Lord and recognize it. Sometimes it seems that missionaries try to prove to everyone that the BOM is true, but that isn't how the Lord works. We must humble ourselves before Him and ask if it is true. Then we will receive an answer. I have received my answer, time and time again, and will continue to do so as I participate in Moroni's invitation. I love the Lord so much! He is so good to us. I love all of you as well =] Take care now, and CTR always!

-Elder Andrew John Beckett

p.s. Mom I think we probably could go on hikes or something for P-day, but with putting in numbers, calls, emailing, shopping, cleaning, etc. it seems like we'd only have an hour or two to hike (including driving time). Plus we have a very limited amount of miles we can drive each month... but that's ok. The Lord blesses us and we still are loving life!

p.p.s. The ward boundaries are going to be changed this coming week... so we might lose some of the members we've just met :/ sad! Our new church on Reams Rd. Should be a lot closer though.